House District 107 Election Headed To Manual Recount

MIAMI (CBSMiami) — House District 107's candidates are bracing for a manual recount.

The primary election between Reps. John Patrick Julien (D-North Miami Beach) and Barbara Watson (D-Miami Gardens) will require a manual recount.

Chris Gate, spokesman for the Florida Division of Elections, announced the rare move via Twitter Friday night.

State law requires such manual recounts when the margin between candidates is less than .25 percent of the votes cast, as determined in a machine recount.

The state earlier Friday said machine a recount would be required in the closely contested race, along with primary contests in House District 55 and Senate District 27.

A call to the Miami-Dade County supervisor of elections office Friday night was answered by an automated message, and it was not possible to confirm the margin in the District 107 race after the machine recount.

But earlier, the margin had been 26 votes, just within the margin that triggers a manual recount.

A manual recount involves looking at what are known as "overvotes" and "undervotes,'' according to another tweet on Friday by Cate.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.